


On the surface

by SrebrnaFH



Series: Srebrna's Sherlock Oneshots [20]
Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Low Self Esteem, M/M, Self Image
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-03
Updated: 2019-06-03
Packaged: 2020-04-07 02:27:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19075615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SrebrnaFH/pseuds/SrebrnaFH
Summary: Sherlock thinks he is ugly.John... doesn't.





	On the surface

As far as John Watson is concerned, Sherlock Holmes is a fairy tale come true. Specifically, The Ugly Duckling.

Sherlock, as he is now, is the duckling before it really saw its own reflection in the water. Sherlock has seen his own reflection many times, but since the human mind is infinitely more complex than that of a swan, Sherlock’s deep conviction of his own unattractiveness is not that easily undone.

John had seen the photos by now. Sherlock had been an adorable baby, a cute toddler and a very pretty kid. As a teen, however… well, “disproportionate” doesn’t even start to cover it.

Long hands, short torso, miles of bony legs. Big nose. Huge ears. Wide mouth. Not that these changed much, but the rest of him finally caught up, sometime around Sherlock’s first or second year of uni.

Still, the lanky, uncoordinated teenager is there, inside Sherlock, occasionally reminding the detective that he had, at one point, been unappreciated by his peers an ridiculed by his closest society, and therefore, is undeserving of any kind of praise.

John knows boys who went through exactly that phase at school - not that he was one of them, he just grew at a steady rate and then stopped, thanking all possible deities for not having experienced the “made out of clotheshangers” phase of human development - and he knows that these were possibly some of the most excruciating years, what with the hormonal storm, voice breaking, acne outbreaks, sudden sexual discoveries and complete inability to deal with issues that came out of combining any of these with school society pressure.

What he also knows is that Sherlock, who has a very low opinion about his looks, also has a very high opinion about his mental faculties, and that results in him completely ignoring any kind of input from outside that could, potentially, lead to his reevaluation of the former. In English - he knows that Molly (and others, including victims, witnesses and even some of the perpetrators) are for some reason vulnerable to his looks and have a weakness for him because of his appearance, but he thinks that they are idiots. Therefore, their opinions are of no value, thus he ignores them and so, in consequence… he thinks he is ugly. And that the world in general is full of absolute cretins with low kind of aesthetic taste.

Which is an opinion he is quite ready to defend until his dying breath.

And which is an opinion John Watson is now planning to demolish. To the ground. With prejudice.

He needs a battle plan.


End file.
